Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(82)

“So do you understand why I didn’t want to tell you about it?” Norman asked.

“I understand. You said you were afraid I’d look at you differently.”

“Right.”

Hannah heard Norman take a deep breath. “So do you look at me differently?”

“Yes. It makes you seem less perfect and more of a normal person with foibles. And I feel as if I know you better, and I like you even more for telling me about it.”

There was dead silence for a moment, except for the muted music in the background. And then Norman chuckled. “Well, that’s a relief! I still can’t believe you like me better because I’ve got clay feet.”

“Clay is good,” Hannah said. “I’ve got them, too. And so do most of the people I like best.”

There was another blast of music, and Hannah knew the door to Gus’s office had opened. A second later, it closed again and Norman came back on the line.

“I’ve got to go, Hannah. That was Alison. She’s taking me over to their apartment now.”

“And you’re going to tell her about Gus?”

“Yes. And I’ll ask her if she has any idea why Gus came back to Lake Eden.”

“Good. Don’t forget to ask her if he had any enemies and if there’s anyone from there who might have wanted to kill him.”

“Will do. I’ll call you right after I leave the apartment. Love you, Hannah.”

“Love you too, Norman.” The words were out of her mouth before she stopped to think. But she did love Norman, so it wasn’t a lie. It was possible for a person to love more than one person at once. She was living proof of that!

She punched the button to end the call, and stood up. On her way past the mirror, she fluffed up her hair and pulled her blouse down in back to cover one of her figure faults. Then she hitched up her pants at the waist to hide another figure fault and went out the door to see how Andrea had fared with Mike.





Chapter Twenty-Seven


“Hurry, Hannah! Tracey’s race is about to start!” Andrea practically streaked across the sand toward the chairs that had been set up on the lakeshore for the audience. Hannah followed, wishing she hadn’t eaten that last piece of pizza, and they reached the chairs just in time to hear the whistle blow.

“Which one is she?” Hannah asked, shading her eyes with her hand.

“She’s wearing the green bathing cap, the one with the little white flowers on it.”

“How far up in the pack is she?”

“She’s second.” Andrea sounded very proud. And a moment later she let out a little squeal. “She’s…in the lead! Do you see her? Tracey just passed the boy that was out in front!”

“I see her!” Hannah bounced up and down on the chair. “She’s widening the gap, pulling way out in front, and…she won, Andrea! Tracey just crossed the finish line!”

“Fantastic! I knew she could do it!”

The two sisters hugged for a moment, and then they sat down again. Both of them were grinning from ear to ear.

“She’s just got to join the swim team at Jordan High!” Hannah exclaimed.

Andrea laughed so hard, tears of mirth rolled down her cheeks. And when she managed to stop laughing, she just stared at Hannah and chuckled.

“What are you laughing about? She’d be great on the swim team. She’s fast, and competitive…”

“And only six years old,” Andrea reminded her. “Tracey’s in kindergarten, Hannah. She can’t join the Jordan High swim team for at least eight years.”

“Right,” Hannah said. “Well…their loss, kindergarten’s gain.”

“Did you see me?” Tracey shouted out, racing across the beach to them.

“We saw.” Andrea hugged her, wet swimsuit and all.

“You were great, Tracey,” Hannah echoed her praise. You outdistanced every one of them.”

“Yeah. And Calvin Janowski’s pretty fast. I heard his mother say he’s got an ear infection and that’s why he lost, but I don’t believe it. I talked to him before the race, and he was bragging about how he was going to beat me.” She stopped and looked up at her mother and her aunt. “Isn’t that just like a boy?”

Andrea and Hannah shared a smile, and then Hannah answered. “Pretty much, I guess. But some girls do it, too.”

“I know. Karen said that if I got too confident, I was going to come in dead last.”

“I think that was just a friendly warning, honey,” Andrea said, taking the towel that Tracey was carrying and slipping it around her shoulders.

“Well…maybe.”

“Karen probably wanted you to be careful not to count your chickens before they were hatched,” Hannah added.

“But why not, Aunt Hannah?”

“Why not what?”

“Why not count chickens before they’re hatched? You can, you know. Our whole class went out to Egg World on a field trip last year, and the egg lady showed us how to tell a fertilized egg from one that wasn’t.”

“Really?” Hannah felt dazed. She hadn’t known they’d covered all that in kindergarten.

“How did they do that?” Andrea asked, jumping off into deep waters.